Cheltz Fest 2021 Behind Closed Doors ?

[Lobos]

I take it Cheltenham won't be serving Alcohol on course. That's going to be weird ! Betting and not drinking.....that's not right !

[Diamond Geezer]

They did at Lingfield on Wednesday

[ryanh97]

I take it Cheltenham won't be serving Alcohol on course. That's going to be weird ! Betting and not drinking.....that's not right !

They said in their email they won't, however some courses have I believe through some loophole that it can be served in venues like courses, but the customer must be sat down or some nonsense.

[Jorvik]

I'll get pelters for this but I probably wouldn't attend til there's a considerable level of crowd back and drinking allowed. I love the racing first and foremost obviously, but for me that's just one part of why I spend all year daydreaming about being there, it's the atmosphere and chaos of it all, the whole day and the buzz around town. I'd be gutted if I got there and it just felt like a hollow shell of itself.

[Pendil]

I'll get pelters for this but I probably wouldn't attend til there's a considerable level of crowd back and drinking allowed. I love the racing first and foremost obviously, but for me that's just one part of why I spend all year daydreaming about being there, it's the atmosphere and chaos of it all, the whole day and the buzz around town. I'd be gutted if I got there and it just felt like a hollow shell of itself.

You cant have a "Festival" without some mayhem

[Kevloaf]

I'm not even considering going next year. I can't really sum up why after starring at the keyboard for 60 seconds then and nothing came to me.

Just feels weird.

[charlie]

Day 2 of the Pfizer vaccine and two NHS staff given the vaccine have already suffered an 'anaphylactic reaction'.

[Hurricane fly]

March is a long way off, I’m genuinely intrigued about the roll out plans of the vaccine.

A logistical plan the likes of which we will never have seen.

[BigChaang]

As i understand it . The first people to be vaccinated won't have immunity until the middle of January after the follow up jab.
So it's going to take a long time to immunise the majority of the population.

[charlie]

March is a long way off, I’m genuinely intrigued about the roll out plans of the vaccine.

A logistical plan the likes of which we will never have seen.

I think we all are pal. The Pfizer jab is a logistical nightmare because it has to be stored at -80 degrees, which severely limits where it can be sent and administered. I am almost certain Cheltenham spectators will hinge on the Oxford vaccine being successfully rolled out because the Pfizer vaccine simply has too many logistical issues. The anaphylactic shock news today is really bad news, on two fronts. One, because it's 2 people out of a very very small sample size. Were it day 30-40 with 100k people and scientists would tell you 'cost of doing business' (for want of a better phrase). Two, it will put people off taking any jab, regardless of whether it is Pfizer or Oxford.

Ultimately, we all want the same thing. A return to normality and a Cheltenham packed to the rafters, but, as we accept in every facet of normal daily life, what we want and what happens are often two completely different things. The road back to normality is paved with many many unknowns. We've witnessed one today - it took less than 48 hours in a sample size of hundreds (1 or 2 thousand maximum) to reveal anaphylactic reactions - 2 days! Even for the most optimistic among you.....let that sink in.

[Hurricane fly]

I think reason 2 is the bigger risk.

I believe the 2 people who had the reactions are at risk of allergic reactions and carry pens around as a result. They are both already fine aswell.

Rationally the govt can learn from that and continue to give it to everyone with no history of these type of reactions, I can’t imagine it wipes out 50% of the population from being eligible.

I still hold out a lot of hope, however this is one of the few things I’m eternally optimistic about - only just admitted defeat to my Easter weekend wedding. People are back in the stands already, monthly increases perhaps and once you take out the city boys and Essex girls who spend all day in the champagne bar I reckon the max capacity won’t be an issue for racing fans!

[jonthehammer]

A lot of people (and practically nearly everyone i know friend and work wise) will refuse this vaccine, Most citing the reason that if they catch Covid they have a 99.7% chance of surviving with their immune system anyway. Not sure how that is for others but its what i am hearing,

[Istabraq]

A lot of people (and practically nearly everyone i know friend and work wise) will refuse this vaccine,

Do you then feel that you, and your friends, have a duty to take extra measures to ensure you avoid passing this on to others who are either at the back of the vaccine queue or those, similar to yourself who are refusing to have it....

[ryanh97]

Do you then feel that you, and your friends, have a duty to take extra measures to ensure you avoid passing this on to others who are either at the back of the vaccine queue or those, similar to yourself who are refusing to have it....

Ista, as stated previously, I'm not one of the people who wouldn't have the jab, I'd happily have it when I get it offered to me. However, am I right that there has been no proof that the Phizer vaccine will stop transmission? Even the CEO himself said he's not certain it will.

[charlie]

To me the government Covid strategy is fundamentally flawed. It's the racing equivalent of a disease breaking out at Philip Hobbs' yard and the BHA decide to restrict all trainers, rather than isolating Hobbs' horses. In Covid terms, the vulnerable people are 'Hobbs' horses'.

Barring the terribly sad hard luck anomalies, the government know who the vast majority of vulnerable people are, and there are roughly 3m of them here in the UK. With a survival rate of 99.8%, roughly 630k of those 3m would very sadly die IF everyone caught covid, which wont happen due to measures, but mostly because of the vaccine.

The question I (and many people) have is why haven't the government focused all their efforts protecting the 3m most vulnerable people? The emphasis has been on restricting the masses to protect the most vulnerable, rather than actually protecting the most vulnerable.

Over 1m people reside in 'contained' settings (cares homes, hospitalised). How much would it have cost the government to properly protect the 400k that live in care homes? How much would it have cost the government to protect the 500k who have cancer? They have spent ?280,000,000,000 (correct, 280 BILLION) in 9 months fighting Covid, and it only takes one glance at the yearly operating budget of the entire NHS (?129bn) to see how reckless and ineffective this government have been.

The government have created a rod for their own back. Restricting the masses and failing to identify and protect the most vulnerable lost the public's trust. Torpedoing livelihoods, businesses and jobs has turned a lack of trust into resentment. Millions of people suffering financial hardship in the wake of colossal ineffective spending further compounds that resentment, and it essentially creates a vacuum where people across the country don't just resent the restrictions, they ignore them. Compliance goes out the window, people break the rules and we are generally left in a complete mess. Thats the fundamental threat to the most vulnerable in society.